Thursday, August 11, 2005

Is there a more universal theme in our modern culture, a theme that stretches into every facet of the fiction we love, than "Work Sucks"?

Unfortunately between my regular job and three job interviews (two in real life, and one via IRC, a first for myself), this is the first time I've been able to put finger to key and pound out another exciting installment in...

Comics-Casey-Decided-He-Might-Like-Three-Months-Ago:

- Adam Strange: Planet Heist TPB;

Adam Strange has one of the coolest look in comics. People talk about Superman as being "iconic", and damn if his costume isn't the most frequently copied in the medium, but Adam Strange? He's absolutely classic science fiction. Heavy Buck Rodgers influence, he's rockin' the jet pack, the ray-gun, and the fin on the top of his head. Absolute retro-Spaceman. So when I heard they were updating the look, I got a little excited and very wary. Some updates have been a boon to comics, such as Robin actually wearing pants, or Nightwing loosing the big, yellow collar.

Happily this was not the case for our intrepid explorer! In fact, I'm a big fan of the newer look. It keeps everything that made him Adam Strange, that made him scream "OUTER-SPACE!" and updates it to remove the giggle factor so many superhero costumes have (hehe, Superman's got his underwear on the outside!).

This is the collection of the Adam Strange eight issue mini from last year/earlier this year that lead into Raan/Thanagar War, the most incomprehensible of the 4 Countdown mini-series. I've been reading it to get my Kyle Raynor fix, as he's pretty much been bumped from the Justice League thanks to John Stewart and the cartoon, and now also bumped from Earth thanks to the return of Hal Jordan.Even with my familiarity with Kyle, I still don't know who the majority of the characters are and what they're doing in a war... I'll be picking this up, not only because I was excited about it before, but also so I can re-read Raan/Thanagar and know exactly what's going on.

- JLA #117;

The third part of "Crisis of conscience" by DC's master puppeteer Geoff Johns. He seems to have his fingerprints all over the major players and titles of the DCU leading up to this crisis, with the exception of Wonder Woman, whom Greg Rucka has hoarded all to himself with results that make me all fuzzy inside.

This story lost a little steam with me, since it ties into Identity Crisis more than Infinite Crisis, a miniseries that wrapped up six months ago. To blame is Kurt Busiek's, I feel sub-par, arc on JLA. They took up eight issues fighting both the Crime Syndicate of Earth 2, and the Weaponers of Quard in a story that should maybe have been published when all the happenings in the DCU...Well, weren't.Dramatic build up my furry blue behind, I think editorial just messed up the schedule.

In this ish, the old school Secret Society of Super villains take the JLA to task for the whole pesky "Mind-Wipe" thing. Also, given chapter two's big reveal, I'm hoping an old arc (#38-40) from Giffen & DeMatteis' Justice League will play a big part. Good old continuity! If so, chapter three will definitely get me excited for the penultimate and ultimate issues...

- Raan/Thanagar War #4 of 6;

Who are these people? What happened to Thanagar? I picked up Villains United and The Omac Project fairly cold and figured it out, but this one... I'll read the Adam Strange trade first.

Seriously, this comic should be called "Why Not to Feed B-List Villains to Monkeys," because in the hands of Gail Simone, they're actually interesting.

In this ish, the villains go stealthy-like, and wear all black outfits, further infringing on the Dark Knight's copyrights. I guess we should have seen it coming, given Catman's love of darkness. Oddly interesting characters like Ragdoll and Deadshot are given depth that they by no rights deserve. Simone deserves an award for making Deadshot seem like more than just a Deathstroke clone, if for nothing else. Always a fun book, if a bit gritty at times, this is the one Infinite Crisis mini that you don't have to know what's happening with Infinite Crisis to both enjoy and understand.

So that's it for me, small week I guess. Sorry for the lateness, on top of the job jibba-jabba, I was without the World Wide Web for a few days. If I had a webcam, heaven forbid, you'd see a brittle shell of a man slowly being brought to life by mother internet's loving grasp.